One in six UK festivals came to an end during and in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, new data from the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) suggests. A study carried out by AIF in the first half of 2023 shows there were 600 music festivals held in the UK in 2019, but only 482 …
LIVE backs UK Creative Sector strategy
LIVE has welcomed the UK Government’s new Creative Industries Sector Vision, which has promised £77m in new funds. The document was published last week, and features the expansion of Arts Council England’s Supporting Grassroots Music Venues Fund, providing an additional £5m over two years to support around 400 grassroots music venues projects. LIVE, the industry …
BBC documentary claims Pollen wilfully overcharged customers
A new BBC documentary claims a senior employee at Pollen was behind a scam that overcharged customers before the music and festival company went bust last year. The programme, called ‘Crashed: $800m Festival Fail’, found that a huge proportion of Pollen customers it contacted were still owed money by the now defunct British company. Among …
Brighton Fringe boosted by Name Your Price success
Brighton Fringe, the largest arts festival in England, attracted almost 500,000 attendees during its 2023 event. Over four weeks and five weekends, over 160,000 tickets were sold to circus, comedy, theatre and cabaret events. Including free and non-ticketed events, overall attendances were nearly 500,000 people, both in person and online. Brighton Fringe held 880 events, …
German launches €200 KulturPass for all 18-year-olds
Germany has launched its €100m voucher scheme which gives all 18-year-olds €200 towards attending cultural events, institutions and pursuits. The KulturPass is intended to support attractions, festivals and theatres hit hard by the pandemic and still struggling to win back their audience. The aim of the Minister of State for Culture and the Media-backed scheme …
Nederlander backs Hollywoodcom Live theatre ticket venture
Entertainment news website Hollywoodcom and Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment (NWE) have announced the formation of a joint venture that will sell tickets for Broadway, West End and regional theatre shows. Hollywoodcom Live will leverage the news website’s reach to drive user traffic towards ticket sales. It will also cross-sell tickets to theatrical productions via youth-focussed theatre …
Coldplay break Singapore ticket sales record
Rock band Coldplay have broken Singapore’s record for most tickets sold by an artist in one day ahead of their 2024 dates. The group added an extra Singapore date to next year’s Asian leg of the Music Of The Spheres World Tour earlier today (Monday) after all 200,000 pre-sale tickets for the four previously announced …
LaLiga clubs reportedly reach agreement over away ticket price cap
Spanish LaLiga football clubs have reached an agreement that will see a minimum of 300 tickets designated for away fans cost a maximum price of €25 (£21/$26), according to reports. Forbes has reported that 11 clubs have agreed to the ticketing deal, which follows a similar policy to the English Premier League, where tickets for …
Banijay to acquire live entertainment company Balich Wonder Studio
French entertainment company Banijay has signed an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Italian live entertainment company, Balich Wonder Studio. Milan-based Balich Wonder Studio was founded in 2013 and has worked on major events such as the 2022 Qatar FIFA World Cup; the Pan American Games Ceremonies in Peru in 2019 and in Chile …
Ticket Tailor and Tixel announce integration partnership
White label ticketing platform Ticket Tailor and ticket resale marketplace Tixel have announced an integration partnership, that will see the two companies work to offer a full-cycle, safe, ethical, fairly priced ticketing solution for event organisers and attendees. Features of the partnership will include leveraging APIs to validate the authenticity of resale tickets in …